Author's note: I've been prewriting this particular take on the Dungeon Core genre for a while, and am now posting it to SV in a bid to iron out my worries about update schedule and prose-entry-rate before I brave Royal Road. Fan engagement welcome - comments, critique, speculation, et cetera.
Later edited to add: Since many people seem to be unfamiliar with hypertext fiction, [canon] is a synonym for [primary text].
Even Later Edit: I don't know what (if anything coherent) I was thinking when I wrote this going Very Weird. I hope to rewrite it at some point into something more coherent and also complete.
1: Summoning
It was the morning of another high-risk surgery - only a seventeen-in-twenty chance of survival, this time - and I'd just gone under. So I wasn't entirely surprised, on waking, to find myself before something like a goddess.
We were standing in a night sky. I was in my favorite loungewear, hair up, slippers on. The - goddess? - was chanting something, so I didn't interrupt.
She was a pretty old lady - feathery platinum-blonde hair to her collarbone, pointy black shoulderpads, dim yellow robe. Kind of like a vaguely-oriental King Uthras? She lowered her hands, and spoke.
"Alexandra Jaecob Aaronsen, also known as Eraserblade64. I'm the Wizard Jael. Big fan of your work." She offered a warm handshake, which I took uncertainly. Then she gestured to the side.
"I diverted your passage to the afterlife because I need help defending my Tower." The stars around us fell toward where she was pointing, condensing into a map, then photorealistic model, then
better. Like the whole thing was in focus, no matter where I aimed my eyes. It was really cool, and also kind of eerie. I nearly
had to look.
Mountains curving down the middle, heavy forest west, scrubland east. Big grey pillar thing in the center, halfway up one of the mountains. Somewhere between lighthouse and skyscraper size? East, some red auras that seem like probability clouds. I turned back to her.
"So, based on the fact that you used my Twitch handle, I'm guessing RTS games are pretty close to how fights work around here."
Her face lit up - but not her posture. "Yes, exactly! Well, it's a
bit more complicated actually, but that's the gist of it. Will you do it? Ah, I'd be paying you."
What, really? I mean, that's only reasonable, but I hadn't been expecting it. "Paying me how?"
She froze. I could see her wincing her way through a list. Finally, hesitantly: "Internet access? It's a long shot, but I don't know they have it in the collecting-place. I only just realized you might not want to stay [--~***]."
The last word came out inhumanly garbled, like an entire choir having a coughing fit. I whipped around, half-expecting to see a ninja who'd just killed her - but no, just nebulae. Jael waved me down.
"Sorry, translation hiccup. The word I was thinking basically means 'on this earth and theoretically able to be contacted', but 'alive' is the closest word you have, and it's not what I meant. Anyway, I realized that basically all the stuff I could offer you was predicated on you wanting resources here instead of just moving on, so, please stay and help me?"
...I'm inclined to, but I would like more information. "Back up a bit. Internet access? So I could talk to my family?"
She winced again, which at this point was starting to make me feel bad. "No, sorry. Coherent signalling is hard enough with the River pulling for me, pushing back upstream would be far worse. Maybe if I had a
lot more essence, like a Titan's worth, but I don't. Same reason we're really not sure what the afterlife looks like."
I filed the titan thing away for later. It was kind of disappointing, but not unexpected. "Well. Local guide, and a job suited to my skills. I don't see what I've got to
lose by staying - wait, you don't have, like, horrible soul-killing magic here, right?"
She shook her head vigorously. "No, souls are indestructible. Even torture is unlikely. ...So you'll do it?" I nodded, and watched
so much tension drain out of her. "You'll do it! Okay, we need to get started."
